Stephen Henderson: Two approaches -- one harsh economic reality

November 4, 2012

The time for serious, thoughtful governance is nigh, as in staring everyone in Washington square in the face.

I, for one, can't wait until it starts -- the morning of Nov. 7, 2012.

That's when we'll know how this bitter presidential campaign -- and the accompanying fight over control of the U.S. Senate -- shakes out. In addition to electing a man -- Barack Obama or Mitt Romney -- the nation will also have chosen a path to deal with a looming fiscal crisis.

The challenge was summed perfectly by the conservative Economist magazine, in its reluctant endorsement of Obama for re-election. America can no longer "tax like a small government, and spend like a big one," the magazine said. That mismatch has created the deficit and debt this nation faces and threatens to bring a second pummeling to an economy that's just getting back on its feet.

Some kind of balance has to be restored, and quickly, because of the deal struck last December to raise the nation's debt ceiling and simultaneously agree to dramatic, slash-and-burn cuts across every government agency if a more responsible approach is not agreed to by Jan. 1.

It has been termed the "fiscal cliff." But it's really more of a wall. If we don't fix things by Jan. 1, the economy's fragile recovery will smash into the destructive barrier of government intransigence.

Tuesday's election will help answer a key question about how to proceed.

If Romney is Tuesday's winner, it's a sign the country prefers to solve that problem without raising taxes, and by enacting deep cuts across a broad spectrum of government spending. Romney has promised to exacerbate the small-government tax syndrome by cutting income taxes 20% across the board and eliminating several other taxes for most payers. He hasn't said how he'd cut spending to match.

If Obama wins Tuesday, it suggests the opposite -- that new revenues should be on the table in addition to necessary cuts and reforms.

But both Romney and Obama, whoever wins, will need to face realities that have been mostly avoided during the campaign.

For Romney, it's a matter of simple math. No sane person believes he can enact nearly $5 trillion in new tax cuts without making much deeper spending reductions than he has suggested. He'll have to cut defense, which he has promised not to, because it's the largest domestic consumer of the treasury's dollars. And if he really eliminates popular deductions like those for mortgage interest or dependents, he'll have to face up to raising tax burdens on middle-class families who now pay virtually nothing in federal income tax, thanks to those exceptions.

Even though Romney wouldn't take office until January, he'll need to make more of his vision clear, and believable, almost immediately after the election.

Obama won't just be able to rescind the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest to balance things out with his approach. He'll need to get fellow Democrats to accept that some popular expenditures will need to be scaled back or eliminated. And if Social Security and Medicare, two critical parts of the country's safety net, are to be restored to long-term balance, Democrats will need to face up to the possibility of some reduced benefits or increased contributions.

The country is out of easy choices that put off dealing with our long-term structural imbalances.

Again, in the case of either an Obama or Romney win, it will just have to be about serious, thoughtful governance. The courage to stand up not just to your political enemies, but to the unrealistic expectations of your allies as well. The insistence on problem-solving in the biggest sense, rather than political point-scoring in the smallest.

Campaigns will need to give way to competent leadership -- and they'll have to do so when the sun rises on Nov. 7.

Stephen Henderson is editorial page editor for the Free Press and the host of "American Black Journal," which airs at 1 p.m. Sundays on Detroit Public Television. Follow Henderson on Twitter@ShendersonFreep, or contact him at shenderson600@freepress.com, or at 313-222-6659.